Posts Tagged ‘temptation’

Ran out of steam a little last week, as was feeling fluey, or perhaps it was just the last of the quitting smoking side effects. But I was back at bikram on Saturday, Sunday, and last night. One of the amazing things about yoga is that it never feels 90 minutes long. I don´t know how long it *does* feel though: at the risk of sounding flakey, it´s not about time…

Talking of time, the healthy challenge has run a full 31 days. I don´t think I did particularly well at the eating healthily and being teetotal part. That said, I still haven´t had a cigarette; haven´t put on any weight, despite kissing the cigs goodbye; and have averaged three yoga classes a week. Not quite in TC´s league, but still an achievement for me.

And I think I´ll continue with the yoga, even though my mission is officially completed. Tonight though, it´s off for sunshine drinks. I *won´t* be succumbing to smoky temptation, but please continue sharing your encouragement to keep me on the straight and narrow!

Yoga phrase of the (yester)day: “Sink into your towel.”Achievement of the day: One month of not smoking!Event of the day: Sunshine drinks.

Weekend was so-so healthy living wise. Went to bikram yoga (Friday) and swimming (Saturday). Did drink a couple of beers at the Coldplay concert but managed to refrain from smoking, even though it was *really* tempting.

Now that my flat has emptied out from being a hippie commune* I am very grateful to have my bed back. Even though I have been sleeping a lot better since I started yoga and stopped smoking, the couch in my lounge is far from comfortable.

Yoga today again, where Brian suggested I participate in the 30 day challenge, which starts April 1. The crazy thing is, instead of thinking that Brian is crazy, I am seriously considering the idea, although Cyprus does get in the way somewhat.

*A sad goodbye to Shennie Pie and Mister Moose, but a happy hello to their “replacements”, who will be named when I think up suitably cool monikers for them.

Yoga phrase of the day: Namaste. Yoga inspiration of the day: Matt´s endless bender. Weather of the day: Rain, again. I didn´t sign up for this!

Didn´t have any exercise scheduled for today, but went for a brief swim when I got home from work. Actually, I was *almost* tempted to put in a surprise appearance at yoga after a hectic day, but decided I´d rather have some time to myself in the evening for a change. Not doing too well on the healthy eating at the moment (chicken tikka masala for lunch), but hey, it ´s crunch time at the office and I have to keep going somehow on my first non-smoking deadline!

I am beginning to understand why I have never felt the need to exercise before. It´s just such a boring thing to do. And I abhor boring.

Exercising is not at all like going out and having a few drinks with you mates, and then someone says something funny, and then someone else makes a fool of themselves (hopefully not you, but it easily could be), and then you can have fun trying to piece it all together over a bloody mary or two the next morning.

Exercise is more like you go to the yoga studio, by yourself (even if you have a friend there, it´s not like they can exercise for you, more´s the pity), and then you sweat a lot and stretch your body into weird shapes and feel really tired, and then you get a fabulous endorphin rush, but there´s not really much point because then you come home, write a blog post, and have to go to bed, directly, so that you aren´t a zombie the next day.

And you can´t even have a cigarette to protest against the futility of it all!

Temptation of the day: NH going straight from work to the local to have a pint and watch the football. To his credit, he didn´t invite me. To my credit, I didn´t invite myself.Yoga phrase of the day: “Lock your knees.”Theft of the day: Towel from the yoga studio, inadvertantly. But I´ll have to take responsibility for not returning it, which is my cunning plan of inaction.

Today was my first private pilates lesson. It was fine and some of the exercises I learnt even seemed kinda familiar from yoga class. Will elaborate another day, but all this healthy living is taking it out of me, so right now I´m off to sleep…

Pilates phrase of the day: “Corset your ribs.”Temptation of the day: Mr Moose having the effrontry to ask me to buy him cigarettes with my money, and then proceeding to smoke them in front of me. In his defence, he was being absentminded rather than vicious. Indignity of the day: Taxi driver telling me yoga was good exercise “for women”.

Today was my first non-working day of not smoking. It could´ve been more difficult, but luckily I had my second bikram yoga class to distract me. Everyone keeps asking how it is exercising in the heat (40 degrees). Obviously, you sweat a lot. But aside from that I´m generally just concentrating on how to do the postures, rather than letting the extreme temperature perturb me.

Tomorrow I have my first private pilates lesson. Yikes, I´ll have done more exercise in one week than I have in the last year, or the year before that, or the year before that… You get the picture.

Yoga phrase of the day: “Lengthen your spine.”Temptation of the day: Letting my cleaner have a cigarette out the window, but denying myself one.Admin of the day: Realising I´ll have to organise to have my BMI/heart rate/ flexibility measured at some place other than the yoga studio, cos they don´t offer that service.

A few of my friends and family had some suggestions regarding which form of exercise I should choose for the healthy challenge. Aqua aerobics (promising) and kick boxing (be honest, can you really see me kick boxing?!) both featured. That said, I don´t imaging many people could see me doing bikram yoga either…

I was really nervous about going to class today. I mean, I know the point of yoga is like to focus and relax into yourself, but still, I was worried about not doing it right. What if I was exhaling when everyone else was inhaling?!

It was good to have Heidi with me for encouragement. And even though she´s a natural athlete and was totally better than me, I know that´s not the point, so I´m not at all jealous (okay, well only a little bit).

So, first impressions? Well, for starters, it was fucking hot. By the end of the 90 minutes I looked like a tomato. A very sweaty tomato. But, and here´s the thing, I felt fantastic. It´s a long time since I let those exercise endorphins run riot in my body: they had fun, and so did I. I felt like I imagine Pim does when he´s had too many painkillers at the dentist. Except my buzz was what I believe is known as a “natural high”.

I´ll write more about the actual class and different postures next time I go – for my first lesson I was too busy wiping the sweat from my brow while trying to balance on one leg to make any detailed observations…

Temptation of the day: Guy behind the counter at my friendly corner shop asking if I wanted to buy a packet of smokes. I uttered a very sore, “No, thank you.”Yoga phrase of the day: “Looking, but not seeing.”Request of the day: Just because I was making fun of the gym bunnies who commented on my first healthy challenge post, it doesn´t mean I don´t want anyone to comment. I was only teasing, honest. I´m gonna need your comments and further encouragement throughout the month, please!